


Whiplash

by Lunette3002



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Depictions of Relatively Minor Injuries, Gen, Good Sibling Jason Todd, Good Sibling Tim Drake, Hurt Jason Todd, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Kidnapping, Medical Inaccuracies, Protective Jason Todd, Protective Tim Drake, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin (DCU), Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 08:35:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30019080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunette3002/pseuds/Lunette3002
Summary: When Barbara called to tell Tim that one of his safehouses had been broken into, he wasn't expecting to find an unconscious Red Hood.ORWords like "whiplash" can have two meanings :)
Relationships: Tim Drake & Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 13
Kudos: 250





	Whiplash

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings: implied/referenced kidnapping, mentions of kidnapping, graphic depictions of relatively minor injuries, medical inaccuracies
> 
> Thanks to Iselsis for beta reading this for me :D

“Oracle to Red Robin; are you busy right now?”

Tim surveyed his handiwork neatly tied up in front of the jewelry store. “I’m just finishing this up. Let me tip off the police and then I’ll be ready for you.”

“Who do you take me for? Already done.” Oracle’s voice was computerized as usual, but he could swear he could hear her smirk in the reply.

“I didn’t want to assume,” Tim said lightly as he shot out his grappling hook and swung up to the roof of the opposite building. “So what do you have for me?”

“The security’s been tripped at your place in Burnley. Not urgent, but it might be good to check out.”

A frown crossed Tim’s face as he recalled the exact location of that particular safehouse. He didn’t use it much, not wanting Jason to misinterpret the closeness to Crime Alley as loitering or making him feel like he was being babysat.

“Last I knew, there was a convenience store across the street with a security camera out front. Think you can get eyes on the building with that, O?”

Barbara replied immediately, “Already did that too. No one’s entered the building or the alley beside it for the last half hour. Whoever it is entered from the roof or was already in the building.”

That was... a bit more concerning than normal B&E. “I’ll head right over,” he decided. On an otherwise successful night, it was just his luck to have one of his safehouses possibly compromised. He knew for a fact that there was nothing vigilante-related out in the open there, and Oracle would definitely know if anyone had even tried to access the secret compartments, but someone even finding the safehouse and knowing who it belonged to could be disastrous.

“Want me to send Hood that way too?” she asked seriously before adding with wry amusement, “There haven’t been any panicked reports of him venturing outside the Alley, so he should be in the area.”

At the mention of his ornery older brother, Tim internally groaned. Jason was usually fine when they were working together on a case, but Tim was sure he’d think this was a waste of his time and complain, if he even bothered showing up at all. Out loud, however, he hedged, “Hasn’t he been avoiding us for the last few days? He’s probably caught up in his own case.”  _ Or he’s mad at Bruce again for some reason _ , he didn’t say. Jason’s relationship with Bruce was still… hit or miss. It was exhausting at times to deal with the instability in their relationship, and Tim didn’t mind staying far out of it if he could.

Ever mindful of their safety, however, Oracle didn’t let it go. “I can at least let him know what’s happening and let him decide if he has time to join you.”

“It’s fine, O.”

“You sure? N and Robin are in the middle of handling a bust across the city and neither Spoiler nor B are out tonight. We don’t know who’s breaking into your safehouse or why, and I don’t like the thought of you not having backup.”

Honesty it was then. “O, if he’s caught up in his own thing, he’s gonna be pissed I pulled him away from that for backup at my  _ own apartment _ .” Tim made his way to the roof overlooking the alley his bike was parked in. Pausing to adjust one of his gauntlets that didn’t need adjusting, he added, “He already doesn’t think of me charitably, I don’t want to give him more reasons to think I’m incompetent.”

Barbara was silent on the other end for just a moment before saying, “I think you should give him more credit, but I get that I’m not going to change your mind. Just, be careful. And stay on the line once you get there.”

“Will do,” Tim replied, swinging down to his motorcycle and speeding off.

* * *

The apartment looked completely undisturbed from the outside save for a small blinking red light on one of the window frames to indicate where the security had been tripped. Tim still took the time to rescan what he could see of the apartment through his batnoculars another two times before reporting back to Barbara, “Nothing looks out of place from here. I’ll have to enter to see more.”

He’d also have to investigate the entry point once he was already inside. Standing by the windows on the fire escape in clear view of anyone inside would give him away immediately, so he leapt across the gap between the buildings and began surveying the roof for clues before heading down.

As he looked around, Oracle’s voice spoke in his ear again, “Are you sure you don’t want to wait until Nightwing and Robin are free? You know I love you Red, but I think you’re being a  _ bit _ of a prideful idiot — again, said with love — so I contacted Hood, but he’s not responding which means your closest backup is at least 25 minutes away.

Tim stood still on the roof considering his options.

On one hand, he doubted this was a major Gotham player. They kept close track of all the locations of the Rogues and in a streak of luck, they were currently all in Arkham or Blackgate. No gangs had been making noise about going after the Bats and Tim was pretty sure the non-Gotham based villains didn't have any plans ready at the moment.

On the other hand, if he was wrong about any of those things, he could be in serious trouble, especially if any or all the Bats’ identities had been compromised.

It was that thought that urged Tim to go forward with this investigation. He needed to know what they were dealing with and even if something happened to him, Oracle would be able to warn the others. He took some comfort in the fact that, if this was someone like Ra’s or Deathstroke, this safehouse wouldn’t be the place they would choose to infiltrate to get his attention.

“Try Hood again and put him on standby if he responds. But I need to know what threat we might be facing. I’ll flee at the first sign of trouble. Promise.”

“You Bats…” Oracle grumbled, keys clicking in the background.

“Once a Bat, always a Bat, O. Don’t think I’ll let you forget some of the stories N’s told me from when you were Batgirl,” Tim teased, trying to lighten her mood.

“I can still hate it when any of you pull shit like this.”

“I know. I’ll get you a new mug as an apology present, but I need to do this.”

“I get it — unfortunately.”

After confirming that the roof was clear of evidence, Tim circled around to the side of the building that would give him entry to the kitchen. It was a strategic choice, one where he wouldn’t be putting himself out in the open right away once he was inside at the cost of limiting his view of the rest of the apartment. He slowly grappled down the side of the building.

“I’m entering now.”

“Be careful, Red.”

The window eased open soundlessly and he alighted on the floor with no reaction from inside. Enough light from the city entered the fourth-floor apartment to dimly illuminate the space outside the walled-in kitchen, so Tim kept his night-vision off. Exiting the kitchen cautiously, he crept through the open living area, bo staff at the ready, but the apartment was silent and still other than the city noise and shifting shadows as cars passed by outside.

His senses were hyper alert as he meticulously searched through the nooks and crannies of the apartment, pausing only briefly by the window to see that the intruder had taken the time to unlock it instead of breaking through by force. Interesting.

Reaching the bedroom door, Red Robin stowed his bo staff with practiced ease, leaving it in easy reach but opting to draw a batarang instead for the smaller space of the bedroom. Steading himself, he burst through the door.

To find a room empty other than Jason’s slumped form against the wall opposite him.

“Hood?” He asked, jerking the closet door open to peek inside before shutting it and approaching Jason.

“Hood,” he repeated. “Can you hear me?” He reached for his helmet first, intent on taking it off before he saw the jagged cracks spreading from the side. It took a lot to damage the Red Hood’s helmet. Tim cringed slightly and reported back to Oracle who he was sure was listening anyway, “O, I found Hood here. He appears to be unconscious or at least unresponsive. His helmet’s pretty damaged on the side, so I’m worried about head or neck injuries, but I don’t think I’ll be able to properly tell if I leave it on.”

Oracle’s key clicks were the only noise for a moment before she decided, “Lose the helmet. I’ve disengaged the security. Try not to jostle him.”

Red Robin carefully unlatched and maneuvered the helmet off of Jason’s head and set it aside. Jason’s face underneath was alarmingly pale and his hair was stuck to his skin with sweat. Nevertheless, Tim calmly went through the motions of feeling around his head and down his neck for any easily identifiable injuries. He couldn’t find any, but when he checked his pulse, Tim cringed. His breathing was fast and slightly raspy and it all painted a picture Tim wasn’t liking.

Tim swore, “Send a batmobile. His head and neck are fine, but I think he’s in shock. I won’t be able to see how badly he’s hurt until I can get his armor off.”

“On it. I’ll alert Agent A, but you might be better off going to Leslie’s.”

“Copy.” More to Jason, Tim murmured, “I’ll be right back. Just lemme grab the first aid kit,” as he dashed back to the bathroom to grab the hulking box.

Of all of Bruce’s kids, none could match Bruce’s ability to completely lock away their normal selves while in the mask, but Tim probably came the closest. As he arrived back at Jason’s side, he forced himself to dive deep into the role of Red Robin. Tim Drake’s panic wasn’t going to help keep Jason alive, so he had to be tucked as far away as Red Robin could force him.

The jacket was the first obstacle between Red and helping his br— Hood. He had only just unzipped the jacket when he was thrown for a loop. There was nothing underneath the reinforced leather except Hood’s scarred chest. His armor and undershirt were absent and Red felt the stirrings of doubt in his stomach. This wasn't a mishap on patrol. Something had happened, though RR wasn’t sure what events had led to Hood ending up with his helmet and reinforced jacket but not the rest of his equipment.

RR continued through the motions of maneuvering Jason so he could take off the jacket, and encountered his next obstacle of having to peel the fabric away from the drying blood sticking it to Hood’s skin. It was... unpleasant to say the least. He bit his lip as Jason’s face scrunched unconsciously at the pain before going slack once more. Crumpling the soiled jacket into a ball once it was off, he eased Jason onto his side for easier access to the wound on his back. Once he could see what he was dealing with, he was sure he’d feel better.

The sight that greeted him drove the air out of his lungs like he had been punched. He must’ve made some kind of noise because Oracle was immediately in his ear asking, “Red? What’s wrong?”

Tim had to swallow twice before replying, “When was the last time anyone heard from Jason?”

The tension across the line was palpable, but Barbara’s voice was steady when she replied, “he was planning a team-up with Dick, but an hour before they were supposed to meet up, he told him something more important came up. That was four days ago.”

_ Yeah, that tracks _ , Tim thought grimly. Of the crisscrossing wounds on Jason’s back, some looked new — freshly bleeding where he’d reopened them in removing Jason’s jacket — while others were scabbed over and untreated. The marred flesh was littered with new and old bruising and overlaid with dried and fresh blood both, which came together to make a sickening patchwork.

Jason hadn’t been captive long enough for any of it to start properly healing yet, but that just meant that he must’ve been in massive amounts of pain already when the newer wounds were inflicted. It gutted Tim to think of all the time Jason had been suffering and they hadn’t even known.

It’s possible Jason wasn’t captured that first day, but unlikely. How long was he waiting for them to rescue him? Had he already given up on them coming for him by the time he escaped or was let go? They didn’t even notice he was missing, so how long would it have taken them to start looking? Tim felt sick.

He dug the fingernails of one hand into his palm while taking a deep breath. There were Tim’s own reactions again, back at the surface and being unhelpful all around. He really needed to get it together.

With careful hands, he used gauze to wipe as gently as he could over the blood smeared across Jason’s back. It looked like some of the older wounds hadn’t split the skin, but the continued beatings with whatever his captors had used had eventually worn and split the skin in many areas, especially where they crossed over existing welts.

Despite being mutedly alarmed that Jason was  _ still _ unconscious, Tim was more thankful he wasn’t awake for this part as he moved on to cleaning out the injuries as best he could.

As he worked, the detective in him started analyzing Jason’s overall condition and came up surprisingly short when comparing the injuries he’d sustained, to his body’s reaction to them. His pulse was still pounding away and his breathing had neither leveled out nor gotten worse. It didn’t make sense. He was missing something.

He moved on, carefully feeling any unmarred skin around the wounds to check for abnormal heat or other signs of infection. The damage was too extensive to avoid touching the injuries entirely, but if Jason was going to wake up and feel it, he would’ve done so by now. A few of the older wounds were warm to the touch and slightly inflamed, but Jason shouldn’t be faring this poorly, and he  _ should be awake _ . For a moment, Tim just rested his hand on Jason’s shoulder, feeling truly lost.

“Jason,” Tim coaxed softly, patting his brother’s cheek. He wasn’t expecting much, but he couldn’t help himself. The part in him that was all Tim was wishing his brother would wake up and tell him what was wrong so he didn’t have to be in charge anymore. It was a stupid, childish thought which Red Robin firmly shook his head to ignore, but it rattled around in the back of his head as he started clinically reporting Jason’s condition back to Barbara for her input.

Oracle gave a mechanized hum after he’d finished. “I’ll relay that to Agent A. To me it sou—” Before he could hear the rest of her sentence, Tim found himself flying backwards and landing heavily on the ground, ears ringing and stars shooting across his vision like fireflies.

He recovered into a defensive crouch, blinking hard and reaching for the batarrang that he had  _ stupidly _ already stowed before looking up and freezing.

Blood was smeared in a trail along the wall leading to Jason. Who was now very much awake. His movements were jerky and uncoordinated but he only stopped scrambling away when his back connected with the corner of the room. At the impact, he jolted like he’d been electrocuted. Pained gasps had joined the rapid breaths falling from his mouth, but he only curled tighter into the corner.

“Jason? Jason, it’s okay, it’s just me! You’re safe now,” Tim said, rubbing the side of his head where Jason must’ve hit him.

He started to move forward when Jason snapped out a hand toward him. “Stop!” His voice cracked on that one, desperately shouted word, and Tim froze. Jason was looking at him, eyes huge and wild but unfocused. Once he saw that Tim had stopped moving, he drew his hand back into his chest and somehow curled up even further, dropping his head and gasping quick breaths into his knees.

There was a buzzing coming from near his foot and he looked down to see the comm which must’ve been knocked out of his ear. Fitting it back into place, he was immediately greeted by Oracle demanding, “Red Robin,  _ what _ is happening?”

“Hood woke up and panicked. What—?”

Oracle huffed a breath of relief. “Well that answers that; did you hear what I said?”

“No, sorry, I was a little busy with him hitting me,” Tim snapped.

Electing to ignore him, Oracle continued, “His high heart and respiratory rates make me think he was dosed with something. Based on his reaction when he woke up, it could be fear toxin.”

Tim suddenly remembered where Dick and Damian were tonight. Although Scarecrow was in Arkham, he’d only recently been put there, and they had gotten word that some of his signature toxin hadn’t made it into police custody.

Getting a good look at Jason, he was almost sure that fear toxin was the culprit. His brother was shaking, flinching every few moments, and he was ghosting his fingers along the wall beside him, reaching to feel the open space beyond his corner.

God, Tim hoped that Jason’s captors had only introduced fear toxin into their repertoire today.  _ Tim _ was going to have nightmares if he had to picture Jason being captive for four days while high on fear toxin, let alone Jason who might’ve had to experience it.

_ Cut it out _ , Red Robin urged the Tim part away.

Strategy and reason. He knew he couldn’t simply overpower Jason, especially when he was pumped full of adrenaline from the fear toxin. He was quicker though. If he could get close enough, he’d probably be able to give him the antidote before Jason could stop him. Hopefully.

Red took a fortifying breath before softly calling out to his brother again. “Hey, Jason.” At the sound of his name, Jason’s eyes snapped to the lenses of Red Robin’s mask. “It’s just me; just Tim.” He reached up to peel off his domino to try to get Jason to really see him.

Other than the uncontrolled trembling in his limbs and his heaving chest, Jason didn’t move. Past the terror in his eyes, his expression was unreadable.

“Jay?”

A spark of clarity returned to his eyes, and hope tentatively flared in Red Robin’s chest to match. An icy wash of reality snuffed it out mercilessly when Jason’s expression cracked and shattered, turning to desperate dread. “No, no no no n-nono. I th-thought I was safe. What-what are you doing here? Tim—” Jason brought his forehead back to his knees, sinking his fingers into his hair and tightening his hands into white-knuckled fists.

It felt like a hand had reached into Tim’s chest and started to squeeze. He didn’t know exactly what Jason was seeing, but it was obvious his presence was making the fear worse. It struck a raw nerve that he had long tried to keep buried. He wasn’t needed. He wasn’t wanted. He was making everything  _ worse _ .

Jason’s voice was becoming rough with the beginnings of helpless tears as he continued, “You shouldn’t even b-be here. You shouldn’t —  _ Tim _ —”

His need to fix this as quickly as possible warred with his desire to not exacerbate the situation further.

Self recrimination won out.

Tim lowered himself to the floor a good distance from Jason’s shivering form. “Okay. Okay, Jason, do you want me to call someone else? Steph could proba–”

Jason cut him off like he couldn’t hear him, “It sh-sh-should be safe here. This is Tim’s place. I thought— How are you here?”

Tim’s mind screeched to a halt.

Oh.

Jason came to Tim’s place… because he felt safe here?  _ Because _ it was Tim’s place?

The thought almost made Tim’s throat tighten more than thinking that Jason was scared of him. That level of trust… After everything Jason’s been through, how on earth had  _ he _ , the  _ replacement _ Robin, earned that rare gift?

Resolve swelled in his chest. He wouldn't let Jason down.

The  _ pop _ of one of the pouches on Tim’s belt made Jason give a full body flinch, but his eyes stayed clenched shut, so Tim began inching forward. When he came in range, Tim held the injector in one hand and prepared to strike.

As Tim made his lunge, Jason’s eyes flew open and Tim had barely enough time to think  _ oh shit _ before he was jerked off-course, wrists trapped in Jason’s steely grip. When Jason started to squeeze, Tim squeaked out, heart pounding, “Jason,  _ please _ , it’s just me!”

Before Tim could figure out his escape, Jason was dropping his wrists and grabbing him around the middle.

“Tim,” he hiccuped. His arms tightened around Tim and he pressed his face into Tim’s chest. “Timmy. Timbit. You’re–you’ve gotta go. He was here. He can’t find you.” Despite the words, his shaking arms were tight and his fingers clenched desperately in Tim’s uniform.

There was an unnerving quality to fear toxin in how it caused people to bare their innermost selves. Bruce bared his love for his children in how terrified he was of losing them. Dick’s family was everything to him and his desire to keep everyone close betrayed his fear that they would slip through his fingers. Damian revealed how much it meant to him to be part of a loving family in toxin-induced visions of rejection. Even Alfred, the one time he had gotten a minor dose of fear toxin, had revealed his love for his charges with nightmares of not being able to protect them.

Jason, however, always distanced himself as the aloof black sheep of the family. Yet here he was, terrified and in pain, only begging for Tim to get to safety.

It seemed that there were a lot of assumptions about his older brother that Tim was wrong about.

Tim had to swallow the lump in his throat before he could speak. “It’s okay. He’s–he’s gone. It’s just us here now. We’re gonna be just fine, Jason.” Tim caressed the back of his brother’s head with his hand. He stroked through the sweat-damp strands for a moment, applying pressure to ease Jason’s head to the side. Once he had his opening, he struck.

The startled sob that tore its way from Jason’s throat strangled Tim with burning guilt. Withdrawing the needle, he returned to stroking through Jason’s hair almost desperately, murmuring apologies and reassurances as his brother only held him tighter. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Jason. It’s okay. You’re gonna feel better soon. I’m so sorry. It’s gonna be okay.” His eyes stung as he felt his normally unshakable brother’s tears soak his shoulder.

When his grip on Tim slackened, Jason’s drooping eyelids shot open again and he made a last ditch attempt to grab onto Tim, and he whispered, “please. Please don’t leave me.”

With the last of his energy exerted and the antidote taking full effect, his eyes fluttered shut and he went limp in Tim’s arms once more. Tim didn’t move for a long time.

* * *

The world faded in as disjointed sensations before anything else. His head hurt. So did his back. His mouth was dry but he wasn’t as thirsty as he remembered being when he was… somewhere. His pulsing head was resting on something soft. He… he didn’t have his helmet.

He gasped fully awake and moved uncooperating limbs to try to free himself from where he was trapped under a weight resting on his side. The weight vanished and sound came back to him in the form of a familiar voice calling his name.

“Tim?” he slurred, fight draining out of him and relaxing back into the soft bed.

“Hey, yeah it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“Mmm head hurts,” he frowned.

“Not your back?” Tim asked incredulously.

“That too.”

“What hurts more?”

_ A or B?  _ Jason’s stomach flipped at the phrase and he flinched away from Tim but forced himself to stay in the moment. Tim was crouching on the bed in front of him, careful to stay out of the way of an IV line feeding into Jason’s hand. His unmasked blue eyes were filled with worry as they searched Jason’s face.

He couldn’t help automatically tracking his eyes over Tim to check that he was okay. Aside from his hair being messy and the clothes he usually wore under his uniform being rumpled, he looked fine, and a bit more tension leaked from Jason’s chest.

“Were you sleepin’?” Jason asked with as much of a smirk as he could muster, ignoring the slight shake in his voice.

Tim sighed, exasperated, “ _ Jason _ , answer the question; what’s wrong with your head? I checked you for a concussion and you don’t have one.” Tim’s stupidly pointy, nimble fingers passed around Jason’s head and pressed gently along his neck.

“Ow! Cut that out!” Jason batted his stupid fingers away, but that movement just increased the pain and made him hiss. “I’m just a little stiff; leave me alone.”

“How stiff? From the damage to your helmet, it looks like you took a big hit; you might have whiplash.”

“Yeah, I think that should be pretty obvious,” Jason joked, gesturing towards the mangled skin of his back. He winced at strain that brought to his neck, aborting the gesture halfway through.

Tim understood what he was trying to point out anyway. “Smartass. Lemme get you a heating pack.”

Lingering fear pulsed through Jason, and he couldn’t help calling out as Tim went to leave the room, “Tim! You’ll… come back, right?”

His younger brother turned back to him and gave a soft smile, “Of course I will.” As Tim turned away, he started humming some aimless tune, giving Jason confirmation that he was still there no matter where he went. He relaxed deeper into the bed, content in the knowledge that with Tim around, he was safe.

**Author's Note:**

> If Jason’s not going to remember (or point out) that Tim was cuddling with him to keep him calm and happy while he slept, Tim’s certainly not going to mention it.
> 
> Tim does get Barbara that new coffee mug, and Jason sends along cookies as an apology for worrying her.
> 
> —
> 
> Thanks for reading! I will pet my dog for every form of interaction I get, but just so you know: Kudos clear my skin, bookmarks water my crops, and comments make my hotel Trivago.
> 
> I hope you all have a wonderful day!


End file.
